Food and Agricultural Policy Reforms in the Former USSR

An Agenda for the Transition

• Publisher: World Bank
• Pages: 242
• ISBN_10: 0821322613
  ISBN_13: 9780821322611
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Business & Economics / Industries / General , Business & Economics / Industries / Food Industry , Political Science / General , Political Science / World / General , Political Science / Public Policy / Agriculture & Food Policy , Social Science / Agriculture & Food , Technology & Engineering / Agriculture / General ,

Description:... The policies of the last seven decades in the former Soviet Union weakened production incentives, created highly centralized and increasingly inefficient production and distribution systems, and distorted retail food prices and consumption patterns. Since the mid-1960s, sustaining those price and consumption patterns has required larger and larger subsidies and has resulted in severe structural imbalances in the food and agricultural sector. This study was undertaken to review the state of the food and agricultural economy of the former Soviet Union, to advise on polices needed to prevent its total collapse, and to foster an early recovery during the transition. The study outlines a program to guide agriculture from central planning to reliance on market principles and develops an action plan for reforming the food and agricultural sector in the Russian Federation and other states to the former Soviet Union.